Crazy From the Heat (4 page)

“I…I
don’t know. Should you leave the room?” The professor’s face was going from
white to more of a gray color. He wrapped his arms around his shoulders and
seemed to draw in on himself. The red stains on the knees of his jeans seemed
darker and wetter than before.

“Grey,
listen to me, I’m going to help you take your pants off, okay. I need you to
help me. Do you want something to drink, or something for pain or…” He had no
idea what to do. The professor was going into shock right before his eyes. So,
Paul did the only thing he could think of. He leaned forward and kissed him.

Chapter
Four

Soft,
warm lips touched his, and Grey closed his eyes and let go. He opened his mouth
at the slightest touch of tongue. He couldn’t stop shaking. He couldn’t stop
thinking about the gun, or the look in the guy’s eyes just before he'd put the
gun to his head. He just wanted that image to go away. He wanted the heat and
the…Silky hair, hard shoulders. Yeah, this. He needed this. He eased his legs
apart, wincing at the stinging sensation as he bent his knees, and did his best
to put the last few minutes out of his mind and fall into the kiss.

He
tingled from the brush of gentle fingers on his face. He couldn’t get close
enough. He tugged, pulling him close enough to devour. Tongue and teeth. A
whispered moan. Erect cock to erect cock. Grey scooted to the edge of the
toilet seat, wanting more. Grey ran his hands down the other man's back looking
for skin. The bulge under his jacket should have stopped him cold. He didn’t
think about it. Pulled hair, wanting, needing, mouth, teeth, tongue—

“Slow
down, Professor. Let me catch my breath.”

He
knew that voice. Spicoli, the smart assed kid from his Senior History class. The
word
kid
stuck in his mind.

“Fuck
me.” He pushed away hard, sending the kid into the wall a couple feet away.

Spicoli,
no Paul Gibson, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as he leaned against
the wall. The badge hanging from a chain around his neck seemed out of place.
Grey caught a glimpse of the handle of a gun beneath the kid’s jacket when he
moved his arms.

“Is
that a request? Because I’m happy to oblige.”

“What?”
Grey couldn’t stop staring at the moist, red, oh-so-kissable lips. Lips he’d
just—“What the hell?”

“Welcome
back, Professor. I thought for a minute there you were going to pass out on
me.” Spicoli—Paul—climbed back onto his knees and crouched before Grey. He
didn’t look as young up close. “What do you remember?”

“Everything.”
Grey swallowed hard. The kid was a Narc in his class. “Paul Gibson isn’t your
real name is it?”

“Paul
Gaines. I’m sorry that you found out this way.” The kid—
Paul
, he would
have to stop thinking of him as a kid because the erection straining his jeans
was going to get him into serious trouble. “I was chasing down an informant
turned dealer when he went out of his fucking mind.”

“And
he got away because of me?”

“He
got away because he jumped head first into a moving SUV, and no matter what you
see on TV, no one can chase down an SUV on foot.”

“But
you would have tried.”

“I
would have been right behind him, yeah. But on the inside of a car. My partner
wasn’t far behind when he bolted.” Paul rubbed Grey’s thighs causing that part
of him that was beginning to forget about the kiss to spring back to life.
“Back to business, I need to check your knees. You’re bleeding too much for
just a couple of scrapes. Could need to get you in for stitches.”

Grey
vaguely recalled the request to remove his jeans, just before the kiss. “I
don’t think I can right now,” he said averting his gaze to hide his
embarrassment.

“If
it’s any consolation, I’m sort of in the same condition. Damn, you kiss like a—Damn.”
The grin that slashed across the kid’s face was far from innocent.

“Why
did you kiss me?” A sudden thought crossed Grey’s mind. “Are you setting me up?
Is that why you’re in school, to suss out potential pedophilic teachers? Jesus,
how old
are
you anyway?”

Paul
caught his bandaged hands and held him still. Grey tried to slap his hands away
but the kid was stronger than him.

“Listen
to me. Grey, you were going into shock. I didn’t think about it, I just did it,
hoping it would shock you out of shock, so to speak. Would you have rather I
slapped you like they do on TV? And I did it because I wanted to. I took a
chance that you wouldn’t mind. You have this incredible voice, and I started
spinning fantasies about two days in, involving you and me and extracurricular
activities. I’m not there to trap you or anyone else. We’re looking for drugs,
and following up on several leads that I can’t talk about. And I’m thirty. Is
that enough? Will you trust me? Please, I’m not going to hurt you. I sort of
like you.”

Grey
closed his eyes and swallowed, trying to quiet the arousal the kid—Paul—elicited
in him. Since day one.

“I
thought I was some kind of monster because of you. You looked at me that first
day, right in the eye, almost like a challenge. I thought about…God, I’m a sick
fuck.”

“I’m
thirty, Grey. Not a kid.”

“I’m
twenty-seven. You’re older than me.”

“So
that makes me the cradle robber. Take your pants off. No hijinks, I swear.”

Grey
wanted hijinks. God he was out of his damned mind. Cole. What about Cole? Screw
Cole. Cole wasn’t his boyfriend. Just some guy who slept on his sofa sometimes.
And borrowed money. Cole was an ass. Grey stood, or rather tried to stand. The
sharp, stinging pain slicing through both his knee caps made him rethink that
action real fast. He hissed through his teeth.

“Okay,
then, we do it the hard way,” Paul said, smiling an apologetic smile as he
reached for the row of buttons.

“Could
you maybe take your gun off before we do anything else? It’s more or less
freaking me out. Can’t stop thinking about the other guy and the other gun.”
Grey laid his hand over Paul’s.

“Yeah,
sure. I’m going to put it out on the couch, okay?  I’ll be back in a couple
minutes.” He stood, shrugging out of his jacket. Grey focused on the exposed
skin when his shirt lifted, and the flash of silver that caught his eye. He
groaned. Oh, hell. He was pierced. Grey was a sucker for body jewelry. “Not so
much the stuffy professor after all, huh?”

“You
have no idea,” Grey said, closing his eyes now that the gun and other assorted
hardware were exposed. Handcuffs. He had handcuffs and a wicked grin. “Not
tempted in the slightest.”

“Pity,
because I can play bad cop, bad hot teacher, in a heartbeat. Be right back.”

Grey
waited until he was alone to start working his jeans down to his thighs but
that’s as far as he got without wanting to scream. Dried blood around the
ripped material pulled at the injury.

“I
think I landed on broken sidewalk,” he said when Paul returned. “Could be bad.
Hurts.”

“Yeah,
too much blood for skinned knees. Hold still, okay, and I’ll help you out of
the jeans and…Oh, baby, that’s not good,” Paul chattered as he gently eased the
fabric over the wound. Grey reached out catching Paul’s shoulders as he
squatted in front of him again. He brushed the shoulder length hair, letting
his fingers twine with the strands.

“What’s
not good?” Trying to stay upright and conscious, Grey closed his eyes and
focused on breathing.

“Gravel
in the wound. It’s going to hurt to clean it.”

“Hurts
already, can’t get much worse.” He was wrong. Paul ran water in the sink and
dribbled hot water over the area. Wiped gently. “Fuck.” He held onto Paul’s
shoulders tightly as the stinging continued.

“Do
you have a pair of tweezers?” Oh, God, what was he going to do with tweezers?
“Betadine or alcohol or some sort of astringent?”

“Medicine
cabinet. There’s a kit with a set of tweezers and a bottle of isopropyl
alcohol. This is going to burn like hell isn’t it?”

“I’m
afraid so. Hold on for a minute. It’s not horribly deep, just like you said,
you hit broken concrete and there are bits inside keeping the wound from
clotting.”

Grey
waited while Paul looked through his stuff wondering if he had anything
embarrassing hidden in there.

“I
already found your condoms, so you can relax. Unless of course you’re hiding a
pain pill addiction from the school board.”

“Nothing
as cool as an Oxycodone jones.”

“Hemorrhoids
then? Not up to bottoming tonight after all, huh?”

Grey
laughed, “Who said I bottom?”

“Ooh,
a top. I’m in trouble now,” Paul said in a shocked voice, rolling his eyes as
he sank back to his knees. “Okay seriously this is going to sting like hell. I
could call the paramedics and move this to the ER, but I think it’ll be fine
once it’s clean and bandaged.”

Grey
watched as Paul poured alcohol over the tweezers and then he tried not to jump
out of his skin when the cold liquid ran over first one knee then the other.

“Right
one took the brunt,” Paul said what felt like hours later, when he was
finished. Grey held onto the sink and Paul’s shoulder and tried not to pass
out. “You okay?”

“Yeah,
I think I’ll probably never walk again, but I’m good. Really.”

“Wimp.
It’s just a skinned knee. Okay, two skinned knees. So, baby, on your back for
the next few days.”

“Are
you offering?”

“Already
said so,” Paul laughed pushing his hair out of his face. “You’re all right,
Grey. Not as uptight as I thought you’d be.”

“Yet
you had, what was it, 'extracurricular fantasies' about me? Or was that what
turned you on?”

“Tweed
jacket with the patches on the sleeves, a pipe, a leather chair, one of those
green library lamps, those sexy glasses and me naked straddling your legs. Oh
yeah, baby, I’m hard just thinking about it.”

“I
don’t smoke or have a green library lamp.”

“What
about the tweed jacket?”

“I’m
pleading the fifth on that,” Grey sucked in a ragged breath when Paul taped his
leg. The gauze wasn’t pleasant against the open wound.

“Maybe
I’ll be around long enough for cooler weather and you’ll wear it to class,” Paul
leaned against the wall the wicked grin Grey had noticed earlier stretching his
lips. “Of course, I have economics right after with your girlfriend, and let me
tell you,
that
is probably the most boring damned class I’ve ever
taken.”

“Yeah,
no
. She’s not my girlfriend. Why do you think she’s my girlfriend? Why
does everyone assume Sarah and I are dating?”

“Because
of the way she leans into you at lunch, like the two of you are in your own
personal little world. She’s possessive and wants to date you.”

“Yeah,
well, she has to get in line, because this hotness can not be contained.” Grey
thought of Cole and tried not to wince. “I’m not dating anyone right now. Life
is too complicated.”

“God,
I know what you mean. I was seeing a Cajun bad boy in New Orleans for a little
while. Until he turned out to be the very damned drug runner I was chasing.
Sometimes I’m so damned stupid about men.”

“Wait,
you really…You aren’t just messing with me, are you?”

“Oh,
I’m messing with you, but not about that.” Paul sighed, hauling his lean body
into a standing position. “I find you incredibly attractive. If you weren’t
injured I’d try to seduce you right now. As it stands, I have some honor.
More’s the pity.”

Grey
had no idea how to respond, other than a quickening in his nether region. “If I
weren’t injured right now, I’d think you were a student in my class. Maybe I
still think you’re just a kid trying to put one over on me.”

“And
since you’re dick is standing at attention, that would make you a pervert
wouldn’t it Doctor Talbot?”

Grey
smiled to cover his embarrassment. “Yeah, I guess it would, Spicoli. That you
never questioned why I called you that might have clued me in. Tell me whose
closet did you raid for your teenage wardrobe?”

“Mine,
why? Don’t I blend in?”

“Too
well, Spicoli. Way too well. Now help me up. I need to get out of this room
before I do something stupid, like kiss you again.”

Laughing,
Paul pulled on Grey’s arms while Grey stiff legged into a standing position.
“It’s not funny. Can’t bend it or it’ll open up again…Can’t use my hands. Just
going to waddle around like a mannequin for a couple of days. And Spicoli is
laughing.”

“Sorry,
Prof. Nervous habit. Can’t help it when I’m with a gorgeous man who threatens
to kiss me. I’m just happy you’re laughing with me. Twenty minutes ago I
thought I needed to call a bus.”

“Bus?”

“Cop
talk for ambulance. Don’t know where it came from.” Paul slowly backed out of
the miniscule bath and into Grey’s bedroom. He glanced quickly toward the bed,
a look of longing in his eyes that had Grey biting back a groan. “Hey, I’m
trying to think platonic thoughts, stop making sexy noises.”